The present invention relates to an arrangement for reinforcing vehicle side doors and walls to protect occupants against intrusion resulting from side impacts, and more particularly to a reinforcing intrusion beam therefor.
Various means for reinforcing automobile doors, generally in the form of beams connected between the front and rear of the door, are presently provided to add strength to the door in the case of a side collision. Considerations are given to the dimensions, material choice, configuration and position of the beams in order to provide maximum protection against side impact forces. Provision of weakened points in the reinforcing beam to prevent undesirable fragmentation of the beam upon impact is also known, e.g. from U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,473, and so is the provision of partly removed flanges and folding of remaining flange portions of the beam connected to the door frame to reduce the risk of passenger injury, e.g. from EP 407,372.
However, known solutions to the problem of providing a reinforcing beam that is capable of sustaining sufficient forces and at the same time ensuring an adequate connection for efficient stiffening of the entire door structure so far have been of limited effectiveness or have been complicated. This is true especially when different materials for the door structure and the intrusion beam are used, something which requires local reinforcing of the door frame in areas of connection to the beam or a general increase in the wall thickness of plate material employed in the door (body panel) according to current technology in this particular field.